Portarlington Golf Club
Course Superintendent’s Report
Date 2/04/20
The month of March saw us receive 38mm of rain bringing the total for the year up to 199mm. Incidentally this time last year we were at a miserly 28mm; hence why the storages look so healthy at the moment. Usually by this time of the year we are scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for moisture. The rain has been a welcome relief and has certainly given the fairways in particular a nice flush. Interestingly we have had more rain in the last three months than for the first six months of last year indicating how dry it was last year.
Disease control has been the issue of the month; particularly on greens and surrounds. This month brought with it plenty of humid weather creating ideal conditions for the advancement of turf disease; namely pythium, anthracnose and rhizoctonia. Consequently, fungicide applications have been made to the fine cut putting areas to protect the turf. Greens have been solid tyned and topdressed in order to increase aeration and relieve compaction. The sand dusting aids with thatch control and also improves ball roll.
February and March are the months when we begin to apply herbicides for the control of ‘poa’ or wintergrass. The cooler mornings with dew and the extra rainfall is an ideal recipe for the germination of this unwanted guest in our couchgrass. We combat this pest with pre-emergent herbicides and also use post emergent herbicide as well to clear up any plants that have already germinated. This is an ongoing battle and now also includes controlling herbicide resistant plants that have emerged over the years.
Unfortunately, with all the extra rainfall weeds do become more of a problem; none more so than kikuyu which has grown rapidly over the last few weeks. Over the next few months controlling this will become a priority so expect to see plenty of yellowing kikuyu around the property.
Recent weather events resulted in us losing half a pine tree on the 13th fairway; this necessitated its complete removal and so with that gone we were able to continue some mounding along this fence line, and introduce fine cut turf to widen and improve this fairway edge. The remaining area between the fairway edge and the fence line will be planted out with a fescue type rough turf and we will also plant indigenous native plants through this area as well.
Currently we are working to improve the area to the rear of the 9th green. The introduction of slight mounding and fine cut turf will see a vast improvement to this rough and unsightly surround. Work is continuing at the 13th tee; irrigation has been installed and the carry between the tee and fairway is now being grown into fine cut turf. In time there will be a seamless transition of turf from tee through to fairway. The path will also be moved to the left side of the tee to enhance this prospect.
